Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signs bill outlawing upskirting

Just two days after a judge’s ruling that upskirting was legal in the state, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill outlawing it. So, from now on, if you secretly take a picture up a woman’s skirt, you can go to jail and face a hefty fine.

The “upskirting” story exploded after the Massachusetts high court said that the language of the current laws meant that it was legal for peeping-Tom Michael Robertson to take pictures up a woman’s skirt. The judge said that since the law stated that the person he was taking pictures of had to be nude or partially nude, the charges against him had to be dropped.

Lawmakers in Boston quickly moved to update the law and a new bill passed both the House and Senate on Thursday. It then went to Patrick’s desk on Friday and he quickly signed it.

The fact that the politicians moved so quickly was not lost on Patrick. “It shows they can do it when they want to,” he told reporters, notes Boston.

The bill makes secretly taking pictures of “the sexual or other intimate parts of a person under or around the person’s clothing” a misdemeanor. It will be a felony if the images are distributed. If convicted, a criminal would spend up to two-and-a-half years in jail and a $5,000 fine.